5/16/12- Inclusiveness and Sanctification

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

(The Balance in Sanctification)


WSCQ. 35. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace by which our whole person is made new in the
image of God, and we are made more and more able to become dead to sin and alive to
righteousness.


Thoughts: What does holiness mean?  "Holy" means "other" or "separate."  We are told in the passage today to separate ourselves from love of the world.  In our day, many want to say that the only thing that matters is inclusiveness and tolerance.  If getting along is our only goal in life, what happens to holiness?  Biblical holiness is balanced by Biblical love.  Truth and love balance each other out.  But if inclusiveness is our main value, truth becomes secondary to including others.  If inclusiveness is the only value, is there any reason to stand up to a Hitler?  If inclusiveness is our only value, how do we include the intolerant?  Certainly prejudice is a sin.  It is an important sin we are called to avoid.  Jesus spoke of the Samaritan loving the wounded Jew.  He healed both the sinner and the saint- the Gentile and the Jew.  Jesus saw the self-righteous Pharisee and Sadducee as wrong, but also the sexually indulgent and decadent Herodian.  Jesus had a balance that we need to get back.  He balanced holding the truth in humility, with a willingness to reach out.  Those who value inclusiveness to the neglect of other values need to ask, what do I value as truth- and how do I know truth?    When we begin to call what God has said is "evil"- "good"- is not that a sign that we have somehow gone astray?  Calvinism reminds us to doubt our self-knowledge our self-righteous thinking.  Inclusiveness taken to its ultimate end becomes a runaway self-righteousness in and of itself.  Sanctification includes inclusiveness, but it is far more than that.  Sanctification is also "holiness" being "other" than the world.  Sanctification is defined not by ourselves, but by God.  God is inclusive, but He is also "holy other." The definition of sanctification really depends on your definition of God.  If God is seen most clearly even defined by Jesus Christ-the Word made flesh- then we should be able to see he calls us to repent into an "other" way of life, but He also reaches out in love.  For Him love and holiness balance out. 


Prayer: Help me to find your balance, your balance of inclusiveness, unity, and holiness.  Keep me from having an ideal that stops my ears to your Word.